FT and ArcelorMittal Recognise Business Innovators of 2013

LONDON: A diverse group of companies have been recognised for entrepreneurial risk-taking and business innovation at the 2013 FT ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards.

Hosted last night by Financial Times editor Lionel Barber and Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, the awards recognise outstanding examples of companies taking bold decisions, adapting their business models and creating profitable and socially useful enterprises to drive change and innovation on a global scale.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson was the guest speaker at the awards dinner, held at the Royal Institute of British Architects inLondon.

The winners of the 2013 Boldness in Business Awards are:

Person of the Year: Ivan Glasenberg, Chief Executive, Glencore

Driver of Change: Mondragon Corporation

Emerging Markets: Mahindra & Mahindra

Corporate Responsibility: Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals

Technology: 3DSystems

Smaller Company: GoPro

Entrepreneurship: SoftBank

Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, said: “Against a backdrop of imbalances between the debt-ridden west and nations with surpluses in the east, this year’s winners have demonstrated courageous and decisive risk-taking in the spirit of entrepreneurialism and innovation. Having fought hard to pull off a deal that paves the way for the fifth-largest takeover in the history of the natural resources sector, Ivan Glasenberg is a worthy winner of the Person of the Year award.”

Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO, ArcelorMittal, said: “This year’s winners represent a wide variety of businesses who have uniquely demonstrated new and brave thinking to transform and succeed under challenging circumstances. Among them, Basque co-operative Mondragon Corporation, winner of the Driver of Change award, puts all its profits back into the business in which many of its workers have a share. And Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, which uses its scale to push costs down and make vital healthcare services affordable to ordinary Indians, is a business which others can take inspiration from.”

Notes to the Editor

About the winners

Ivan Glasenberg, Chief Executive, Glencore, has been the driving force behind the Glencore-Xstrata merger, the biggest M&A deal of the year. Mr Glasenberg has demonstrated excellent entrepreneurship: since taking over as chief executive in 2002, the 55-year old has driven a transformation of the trading house from employee-owned middleman to publicly listed operator of mines and oilfields. He has also accumulated a personal shareholding of more than 15 per cent, worth $6.1bn.

Mondragon Corporation is a Basque Cooperative which has enjoyed huge success with its model, becoming one ofSpain’s 10 largest companies by sales, with worker-owned businesses that include the Eroski supermarket chain. The Chief Executive earns no more than eight times that of the lowest-paid workers within the co-operative. Its collective model makes it unique, but, like many other Spanish companies, Mondragon has steadily diversified its sales away fromEurope. Last year 3.59bn of the 5.71bn total sales in its industry division were international.

Mahindra & Mahindra is the world’s largest tractor company by sales volume and has ambitious plans to crack the US market. At the start of 2012, Mahindra & Mahindra launched a television campaign in theUS to publicise its claim to be the world’s largest tractor maker a milestone for the Indian industrial conglomerate.

Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals is a group of low-cost, high quality and highly specialised hospitals in southern India which has revolutionised healthcare in the subcontinent. Its 35-acre campus outside Bangalore houses massive hospitals dedicated to eye, cancer, trauma and heart care – the last of which is a 3,000 bed behemoth that is the world’s largest and most active cardiac hospital.

The largest manufacturer of three-dimensional printers, 3D Systems is at the leading edge of a technological evolution. In 2012, it produced the $1,300 Cube – the first “mass-market” 3D printer.

Operating in a booming category, GoPro’s Hero3 is the latest generation of an HD camera that has sold more than 3m units since its launch three years ago. The company is doing well, particularly as its competitors include the likes of Sony. It enjoyed a strong marketing boost when Felix Baumgartner used the latest GoPro to film his record breaking skydive from the edge of space in October last year.

Softbank is one of Japan’s most entrepreneurial firms and has recently expanded with its bold decision to acquire a controlling interest in Sprint Nextel, the third-largest US mobile carrier. The deal, worth $20bn and expected to close in 2013, would be corporate Japan’s biggest ever acquisition. Softbank also played a key role in breaking the dominance of mobile phone provider NTT DoCoMo, made Yahoo a huge success in Japan and made an early and very rewarding bet on China’s Alibaba.

About the FT

The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing essential news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community, the FT has a combined paid print and digital circulation of more than 602,000 (Deloitte assured, Q4 2012). FT.com has over 316,000 paying digital subscribers and the newspaper has a global print circulation of 269,121 (ABCs, February 2013).Mobileis an increasingly important channel for the FT, driving 30% of FT.com traffic and 15% of digital subscriptions.

About ArcelorMittal

ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading steel and mining company, with a presence in more than 60 countries. ArcelorMittal is the leader in all major global steel markets, including automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging, with leading R&D and technology, as well as sizeable captive supplies of raw materials and outstanding distribution networks. With an industrial presence in over 20 countries spanning four continents, the company covers all of the key steel markets, from emerging to mature.

Through its core values of sustainability, quality and leadership, ArcelorMittal commits to operating in a responsible way with respect to the health, safety and well-being of its employees, contractors and the communities in which it operates. It is also committed to the sustainable management of the environment. It takes a leading role in the industry’s efforts to develop breakthrough steelmaking technologies and is actively researching and developing steel-based technologies and solutions that contribute to combat climate change.

In 2012, ArcelorMittal had revenues of $84.2bn and crude steel production of 88.2m tonnes, representing approximately six percent of world steel output.

ArcelorMittal is listed on the stock exchanges of New York (MT), Amsterdam (MT), Paris (MT), Luxembourg (MT) and on the Spanish stock exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia (MTS).